Strongest Soldier King

After realizing what he needed to do, Luo Zheng continued his undercover training. One hour later, he felt extremely uncomfortable, wanting just to move a little to feel better. Luo Zheng desperately endured it. Two hours later, Luo Zheng felt an unbearable itch all over his body, wanting to scratch himself as if his blood had congealed and his whole body was stiff. He wished he could stand up immediately, but Luo Zheng gritted his teeth and persisted until, after three hours, he could no longer hold on.

Lying in ambush for three hours without movement, Luo Zheng was not very satisfied, but he could accept it. Before joining the army, he could only do so for at most two hours; three hours marked progress. Luo Zheng noticed his senses had become much sharper than before and wondered if it was due to the family's "Breathing Skill."

It was already midnight, and Luo Zheng sneaked back to the camp. After cleaning and skinning the snake, he stewed it over a "Little Fire" and cleared a space in the dining area to practice the third set of military boxing. From his time in the new recruits' platoon, military boxing had been a mandatory training routine, with the level of proficiency depending on personal understanding.

The first set of military boxing was characterized by a combination of basic fighting skills and movements, concise actions with striking significance, applicable, with a certain training value, and self-defense capabilities; the second set of military boxing was mainly composed of fighting basics such as throwing, disarming knives, disarming guns, and assaults—concise and applicable movements where each action was meant to "overcome the enemy in one move," capable of protecting oneself while exercising the body and enhancing physical fitness.

In addition to the characteristics of the first two sets, the third set of military boxing had the broad and graceful movements of the "Long Fist," with flexible, rapid, and forceful actions, a clear rhythm, and the stable, intense, and vigorous movements of the "Southern Fist." The number of actions equaled the sum of the first two sets, involved a greater amount of movement, and had more complex difficulty; every move had a striking meaning, not only exercising the body but also serving as an effective means to defeat the enemy.

Luo Zheng practiced for a full two hours, soaking his entire body. After a rinse under the faucet with cold water and changing into clean clothes, he finally sat down to rest and devoured the cooked snake meat. Glancing at the time, it was already 3 a.m. Luo Zheng slept in his clothes and started performing the family's "Breathing Skill" to recover his strength.

The next day, early in the morning, Luo Zheng woke up to the sound of the assembly call, followed by the troop's morning run. He checked the time—5:30 a.m.—and saw that everyone was running with weights, not knowing how heavy their marching packs were. Thinking of the impending breakfast, he hurriedly got busy.

The breakfast consisted of porridge and steamed buns, which Luo Zheng finished preparing in an hour. Seeing that the others had not yet arrived, he simply ate first. Right after finishing, the troops came for breakfast. Luo Zheng watched silently from the side, noticing the drill sergeant had also come out and was speaking softly with a few officers. Not caring to eavesdrop, he went to wash his clothes.

After having his fill, the drill sergeant came out and saw Luo Zheng washing clothes. He stopped, let out a disdainful sneer, and continued walking without a word. Luo Zheng hung his clothes to dry and saw that the troops were gathering at the training field. Checking the time—it was 8 o'clock—the troops began hook ladder training, going up and down 200 times, each one gasping from exhaustion. After hook ladder training, they were to navigate back and forth through a 30 meters barbed wire for 200 rounds.

Luo Zheng could see that everyone was in good physical condition, and under such training, their strength would greatly improve. He contemplated his own training regimen and concluded that he needed to increase it. However, Luo Zheng was not yet ready to jump into training; instead, he continued to observe the troops' training.

At ten o'clock, the unit moved to the gym for training, and Luo Zheng followed. Everyone just sneered a few times, but they didn't give him a hard time. The instructor didn't even glance at Luo Zheng, who didn't take it to heart and seriously noted everyone's training methods and workload: 15-kilogram dumbbell lifts for 100 reps, chest expander pulls for 100 reps, and arm strength bar lifts for 100 reps.

After a light rest following lunch, at one-thirty, they underwent sun-exposure posture training, which involved holding an assault rifle at shoulder level with a brick suspended from the barrel by a rope, standing motionless in the sun for an hour. At four o'clock, they were taken to the training field for an hour of target shooting. Afterward, they practiced tumbling, which meant leaping backwards a height of 1.5 meters and crashing heavily onto the ground with one's back. After dinner, they continued with a 20-kilogram weighted 2000-meter run for half an hour.

By the end of the day, Luo Zheng had thoroughly understood the troop's training plan and paid close attention to note the training methods and key points. After dinner, while everyone else was on their weighted run, he quietly left the dining hall and slipped into the woods behind the mountain, finding a clearing to start training without equipment. Without equipment, Luo Zheng practiced push-ups, squat jumps, and back falls.

Two hours later, Luo Zheng continued with his stealth training while recovering his strength through the Breathing Skill. Three hours later, he got up and checked his watch, noticing it was already midnight. After three hours of stealth training, Luo Zheng felt revitalized and found a big tree to serve as an imaginary enemy to train in military boxing. He trained for another two hours.

At three in the morning, Luo Zheng returned to the dining hall, cleaned himself up, kept his clothes on, and quickly fell asleep using his family's Breathing Skill. Two hours later, as dawn approached, Luo Zheng, as usual, got up to cook and unexpectedly discovered his energy was still at its peak. Realizing his Breathing Skill had improved, he couldn't help but be overjoyed.

With the aid of the Breathing Skill, his body could totally withstand high-intensity training. As long as his nutrition kept up, he could even increase the training volume. Thinking of the two-year agreement, Luo Zheng's eyes firmed with determination, and he clenched his fists as he began kneading dough to make breakfast. Although the people here looked down on him, they provided a good environment, which was enough. Cooking was a way to show his gratitude.

After breakfast, Luo Zheng didn't continue to watch others train. The instructors and others thought that Luo Zheng's curiosity had been satisfied, and he had gone back to sleep. No one paid him any mind, and Luo Zheng was pleased to have the time to himself. He went up the mountain to train his physical endurance for two hours, then set up some traps in areas frequented by wild animals. A strong training regime required ample nutrition to sustain it.

In the afternoon, Luo Zheng continued his training in the hills, furiously practicing military boxing against a tree. His fists were wrapped in cloth, and he constantly punched the tree, treating it as an imaginary enemy while imagining the enemy's potential counterattacks and his own responses to them. After half an hour of this intense practice, his arms felt painfully swollen, and he had to stop. Unwrapping the cloth, he saw that the knuckles on his fists were bleeding and severely swollen.

Luo Zheng knew that continuing would ruin his hands, so he had to pause. After a brief rest, when his finger joints felt less painful, he went up the hillside to practice shuttle runs, sprinting up the slope and then rushing back down, draining every last bit of his energy.

On the way back, Luo Zheng was delighted to find a hare caught in one of his traps. Carrying the hare back to the dining hall to cook it, he ate quietly on the side, listening to everyone sharing their insights from training. Learning that there was a 25-kilometer weighted march with a 20-kilogram load scheduled for the evening, he pondered whether to undertake the cross-country march himself.